A Muslim woman living in Bowling Green claims in a federal lawsuit that her Constitutional rights were violated by Warren County Regional Jail employees when she was forced to remove her hijab for her booking photo and was subjected to a strip search that was streamed over a live video feed in the jail lobby.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Bowling Green and names as defendants Warren County Jailer Stephen Harmon, Warren County Judge-Executive Doug Gorman, Deputy Jailer Brook Lindsey Harp, Bowling Green Police Department Officer Ben Carroll and two unnamed female deputy jailers, identified in the lawsuit as Officer Smith 1 and Officer Smith 2.

The suit aims to have the jail destroy the woman’s booking photograph, which shows her without her hijab, along with any security footage that shows her uncovered, and enact a policy prohibiting its employees from taking booking photographs of Muslim women without their traditional religious head covering.

Also, the suit seeks an injunction against the jail preventing its officers from engaging in “public, unnecessary strip searches of any individual.”

The woman, identified in the lawsuit as Jane Doe, is described in the lawsuit as a refugee from Bosnia, a lifelong Muslim and a married mother of two who works in Bowling Green as a medical assistant.

Doe wears a hijab, a headscarf worn by Muslim women that covers their hair and neck, as well as the abaya, a long-sleeved, loose-fitting, full-length dress.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Doe by attorneys with the Council on American-Islamic Relations Legal Defense Fund, says that she wears the hijab at all times in mixed-gender spaces outside of her immediate family and the abaya any time she goes out in public as part of her religious beliefs that call for women to dress modestly.

“Her hijab is a pillar of her religious practice and integral to her identity as a Muslim woman,” attorney Lena Masri representing Doe, said in the lawsuit. “Appearing in public without hijab or being photographed without wearing hijab and having that photo available to the public is a serious breach of Mrs. Doe’s faith and a deeply humiliating and defiling experience in conflict with her sincerely held religious beliefs.” 

The lawsuit said that Doe was arrested April 6 outside her home by Carroll and brought to the jail.

On the way to the jail, Doe claimed to have asked Carroll about jail attire regulations and said she was required to keep her hijab on in accordance with her faith.

During the booking process, Harp reportedly asked Doe if she would be signing up for an iftar tray, saying that iftar — the meal eaten by Muslims at sunset during the holy month of Ramadan — was served to Muslim incarcerees.

One of the female deputies then conducted a pat-down search of Doe and then explained to her that a strip search would take place in a private room and the jail would provide her with a uniform afterward, the suit said.

The lawsuit said Doe agreed to the search conducted by the deputy, believing it was standard procedure.

After receiving a uniform with short sleeves, Doe asked for a long-sleeved shirt, saying after initially being refused that it was a religious requirement for her to be fully covered.

The two unnamed female deputies in the suit complied and provided Doe thermal long-sleeved shirt, saying it was against jail policy to grant this exception but they would not apply the policy to her, the suit said.

After leaving the room where she was strip-searched, Doe noticed a TV screen hung above the door to the room and facing the lobby and saw it was streaming live video surveillance footage from inside the room, according to the lawsuit.

“Mrs. Doe felt mortified, degraded, violated and humiliated,” Masri said in the lawsuit. “She panicked as she realized that everyone in the hallway and lobby saw her fully nude and being strip searched, which is considered a severe violation of her sincerely-held religious beliefs that require her to wear clothes that cover her body in front of strange men and women.”

During the booking process, Officer Smith 1 asked Doe to remove her hijab and informed her she would not be allowed to wear it throughout the jail, the suit said.

Doe reacted emotionally and began to cry, and Officer Smith 1 left and returned with Officer Smith 2, who allegedly told Doe that it was required procedure to remove her hijab and that Christians and Jews were also required to remove head coverings.

After being told that no exception would be made for her, Doe removed her hijab and her booking photograph was taken and uploaded to a public database, which the lawsuit describes as “memorializ(ing) in a permanent way the violation of Mrs. Doe’s religious rights in a manner that continuously perpetuates the violations that occurred that night.”

“Every moment this picture remains public perpetuates the harm and anguish suffered by Mrs. Doe,” Masri said in the lawsuit. “It is a permanent record and consistent reminder of defendants’ violation of her right to practice her faith.”

Doe was escorted to her cell without her hijab and was allowed to put it on again once inside the cell, but was not given back her abaya. She was released from jail later that day when her husband posted bond.

The suit accuses Harmon, Gorman and Officer Smith 1 of violating Doe’s rights against unreasonable search and seizure through the strip search and accuses Harmon and Gorman of violating her rights to religious exercise granted to  under the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

All the defendants are charged with violating Doe’s state- and federally-protected religious freedoms.

Reached about the lawsuit, Harmon provided a statement to The Daily News.

“Warren County and its named employees are aware that a lawsuit was recently filed on behalf of Jane Doe,” Harmon said. “Warren County admits there was an incident involving Jane Doe during intake at the Warren County Regional Jail; however, Warren County states that the complaint contains exaggerations and inaccuracies as to the events that took place. Warren County and its employees deny violating Jane Doe’s constitutional rights and state that they acted to safeguard employees and other persons at the jail in a non-discriminatory manner. Warren County and its employees will vigorously defend their actions taken on this matter.”

The suit notes that other police departments and state correctional agencies allow women to wear their hijab while being photographed, and Doe wears her hijab in her driver’s license and passport photos.

Doe’s legal team has filed a motion for a protective order keeping her name under seal in court records, arguing that naming the defendant would compound the harm against her and that future victims could be discouraged from coming forward if her name is disclosed.